There's No Limit To How Strange Our Lives Get
by christineexx
Summary: Two worlds collide, combining science and mythology in one giant lump of confusion. But if you take the time to sort things out... Will it ever make sense? -Review please? It's much appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: Alright, I probably **_**really **_**shouldn't put this up, because I've already got two other Fics in progress right now. However, this story kept screaming at me from my notebook, **_**"PUT ME UP! PUT ME UP!"**_** and so, here we are. This takes place after **__**Fang**__** and **__**The Last Olympian**__**— b'cept, the kiss between Annabeth and Percy at the end never happened. Personally, I'm not a Percabeth fan. There will be very little of that in here... So, sorry if you were looking forward to their being together, but I suggest that you go find yourself another FanFic. (:**_

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><p><em>Max's POV.<em>

Pushing through crowds, running through city streets, weaving between pedestrians, cursing at any who got in my way— and all because I'm chasing a random person who may or may not have been telling the truth about whether he may or may not have the answers that I may or may not need and that may or not break my heart.

Sound familiar?

Yeah, of course it does. Or, at least— it should, if you've been following up on the oh-so-marvelous adventures of me and the flock. And if you haven't… well, quite frankly, I have no idea what to tell you. Because why you're reading this is a mystery to me. But, anyways… Ever since what seems like a lifetime ago when Angel got kidnapped (Do you guys even still remember that? It was freaking _forever _ago!), _this _has been my reality. Of course, this little marathon was slightly different because I didn't have the rest of the flock on my tail like I usually did. While their presence was reassuring, I was actually pretty glad that they weren't here for three reasons. One, the least important reason of all, is that it gave me a little variety from my spontaneous and yet oh-so-similar routine. Two: It prevented the kids from seeing me in this insane moment of weakness. Third and foremost, their absence from this little wild goose chase meant that they would all be safe from whatever trap I was inevitably leading myself into.

Well... now that I've gotten all the ranting out of my system, I'm guessing that you're wondering what the latest and greatest event in the series of stupid things I've done is, huh?

Alright, here goes. As you know, Fang left the flock. We haven't seen or heard from him since, and I've been trying to convince myself that it's good riddance. Neither my head nor heart are buying it. Ever since he left, the flock— we, mostly me— has been moping around my mom's house like a bunch of bums. We were bummed, and we _were _bums. It kind of sucked. One day I got sick of it all, kissed my mom and Ella goodbye, and whisked my winged family off to New York. You may be asking why I brought us all the way to New York, home of the oh-so-wonderful Institute, as opposed to staying in Arizona with my _actually _wonderful biological family.

I'm not quite sure what brought us here. It certainly wasn't a certain post on a certain blog saying that a certain someone would be in a certain city.

_Certainly not! _Where would you ever get an idea like that?

So for whatever reason—_not Fang— _we were in this stupid city again, and the flock and I were waking up around nine-ish on top of some construction site. The warmth from the sun was warming my feathers, and a gentle breeze blew my hair around. It was insanely peaceful— that is, until somebody turned on the Nudge Channel. Today's program was all about how hungry she was. Everybody quickly agreed, their silence broken by our resident motormouth. None of us felt like going out to get food, so we had a vote on who would do it. The unanimous decision was that I, their faithful leader who they kicked out not too long ago, would be the one to move her ass and put some effort into things. (I still swear that Angel rigged the voting process.)

As I was wandering the streets, I smelled freshly-made chocolate chip cookies. If you knew me at all, you'd know that chocolate chip cookies are my one fatal flaw. So I was standing there, obsessing over the scent of cookies, minding my own business, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled around, expecting to have to fight yet another brainwashed psychopath to the death, and laughed at myself when it was only a kid. He was probably around ten, with long, blonde hair and dark-as-night eyes.

However, when he looked me dead in the eyes and said monotonously, "I know where Fang is," my laughing immediately ceased. I felt my jaw fall slack and I stared after him as he turned and ran. It took mere seconds for my brain and feet to reach an understanding:

_Follow him!_

…And that, my friends, is what wound me up in this predicament. The crowd was beginning to thin out, and soon enough, there were barely any people on the streets. Now that I didn't have to battle an onslaught of pedestrians on top of my claustrophobic tendencies, I began to slowly gain some leverage on the kid I was chasing. The gap between us was beginning to close, and I reached forward to grab his shirt—

_Crap! _My shoulder hit somebody else dead-on, and we were both sent sprawling. The blonde I had been chasing looked over at us, gave an approving smile, turned, and ran away.

_Crap._

I scowled at the guy whom I'd run smack into and gave him my meanest glare as I studied his face. "Way to go, dumbass! Do you have _any _idea what you just did?"

If my anger had any effect on him, he sure as hell didn't show it. He blew off my remark as he got to his feet, stuck down a hand to me, and introduced himself. "I'm Percy."

His lack of fear threw me so far off balance that I actually reached up and accepted his hand. Once he'd pulled me to my feet, I said warily, "I'm Max. Maximum Ride."

A thoughtful frown crept onto his face as he said slowly, "Like… like the flying mutant spokespeople for the planet?"

I sighed. _Maybe it would've been better to use a fake name… _I nodded reluctantly and admitted, "Yeah. We went through kind of a bit of a sell-out stage…"

His thoughtful frown turned into a grin. Recognition lit his sea-green eyes as he realized where he _really _knew my name from and he exclaimed, "Oh! Maximum Ride! Like from Fang's blog!"

My expression immediately darkened at even the mention of his name. It took a hell of a lot of restraint _not _to rip this kid's head off. "No," I growled menacingly. "_Nothing _like Fang's blog."

I suppose that something about my reaction— maybe it was the growl, maybe the menace— told him to back off, because he swiftly changed the subject. "So, uh, Max. What brings you to New York?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his feeble attempt to path things over between us. I decided to answer this complete stranger with semi-honesty and responded, "Food." I frowned and pressed my hand to my temple. I suddenly had a throbbing headache, which I contributed to this kid's blatantly obnoxious friendliness.

"Want some help getting it? I know some great places." When he caught the dubious expression in my eyes, he added, "Information from locals beats tourists' around ninety percent of the time."

I scowled and responded, "I'm not—" My stomach rumbled, cutting off my denial before I could even get through it. I let out a sheepish grin before admitting, "Alright, so maybe I _am _just a _bit _hungry…"

"My mom can—"

I shot down that offer immediately, not even bothering to let him finish it. There was no chance that I was going to let myself impose on _anyone. _"It's not just me. I don't go anywhere without the flock. Which means you'd be feeding _six _mutant freaks. That's a hell of a lot more than just one. You'd probably need around enough food to supply a small army for a month."

Percy just stared at me blankly. It was the same look that I'd had on my face when my mom had suggested making chocolate-chip cookies from scratch instead of a box. "So?"

I tried explaining my morals. "_So, _I refuse to be a burden."

"It's no burden." _Didn't work._

I tried reasoning. "Tell that to the woman who has to cook enough food for, like, fifty men!"

"She's all for helping people." _Didn't work._

I tried just flat-out denying him. "I refuse to impose."

"You aren't imposing." _Didn't. Freaking. Work._

I tried shooting him the meanest, nastiest glare I could muster and demanded, "Give it up, _Perseus._" I crossed my fingers and hoped that Perseus really _was _his full name, and that I hadn't made a complete idiot of myself by calling him the wrong name.

He looked kind of annoyed, so I assumed that my guess on his name had been dead-on. But then he completely changed his expression to one of longing and whimpered, "Please?"

And _then _he shot me the Bambi eyes. My only weakness.

I wrinkled up my nose indecisively, and shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I was trying to figure out how to say no when he kicked the look up a notch. I let out a small groan and prepared to concede. "Are you, uh… sure your mom won't mind six extra kids in her kitchen?" I paused before remembering Total and adding, "And a Scottie?"

Percy's brow furrowed as he demanded incredulously, "You have a _dog?_"

I returned his confused expression with a cocked eyebrow and a snippy, "You didn't even _question _the fact that we all have wings, and yet you're surprised by a _dog?_"

Percy let out an impish grin that kind of reminded me of Gazzy's. He ducked his head and admitted sheepishly, "I guess I've heard stranger."

I snorted in bemusement (hopefully not looking as stupid as it sounds like I did) and informed him, "I'm gonna go get my band of merry mutants now."

I had taken all of three steps away from him before Percy reached out and grabbed my wrist. I glanced down at his fingers and up at his face, ready to break his arm if I had to. Instead of attacking like I'd expected, he frowned and inquired, "How do I know you'll come back?"

"You don't," I responded earnestly. When I saw his face fall I let out a small, defeated sigh. "But I will. Just… meet me here in, like, fifteen minutes, alright?"

He nodded and plopped down on the steps of the nearest building, as if to prove a point. "I'll be waiting," he informed me before shooting me a grin.

I rolled my eyes yet again and began to walk away from the kid who had somehow hassled me into eating breakfast with him and his mom. As I walked away, I went over our conversation in my head and scowled to myself. How had I managed to let my guard slip so quickly?

_If this is a trap, _I promised myself as a wave of uncertain anger rolled over me, _I will rip off Percy's arm and beat him with it._

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><p><em><strong>AN: Alright… So? What'd you guys think? This is my first crossover Fic in the history of **_**ever, **_**so I would really appreciate some reviews telling me what you guys think. Thank you so much for reading and stay tuned for the next update! 3**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: Soo, there's no reviews yet… but I only posted the first chapter yesterday and I'm already on three people's alerts, so I figured I'd celebrate it with another chapter! :D thanks so much for the support you guys, but I'd also appreciate some reviews… just sayin'(;**_

_**And be warned, this is a relatively short chapter… So, sorry for that! And I probably won't update again until around Monday-ish.**_

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><p><em>Percy's POV.<em>

I raised an eyebrow as Max came back, followed by five kids— well, technically, three kids and two guys around our age. She really hadn't been kidding about how many of them there were! I looked the kids over swiftly before looking up at the first teenager, who was around six-two. He had shockingly blonde hair, which was paired with the palest skin I have ever seen as well as cloudy, sightless eyes. The fact that he was blind made it all the more scary that he was sending both a glare and a scowl directly at me. I moved to the left, but his eyes moved with me. _Creepy…_

"He smells like a freaking fish," he snapped angrily, crossing his arms over his chest. His glare never left my face, and I found myself becoming more and more freaked out by his hostility. _What had I gotten myself into? _I couldn't help but wonder as his malfunctioning eyes bored holes into my skin.

"Can it, Ig," Max commanded of him, smacking the back of his head and solving our little problem. "The kid's gonna feed us."

"And you're sure it isn't a trap?" the oldest of the three kids, a girl with dark skin and unruly hair who looked like she could be a supermodel if she tried, inquired. "Because what if he was an Eraser, and he like tricked us into going with him, and then he gave us food, but it was like drugged, and then he—"

_"Nudge!_" Max exclaimed sharply. She clamped her mouth shut as she regained control of herself, then leveled out the tone of her voice so that she could add, "Listen. He's not an Eraser. They're all dead, remember? And even if they weren't… Look at him! You know how all the Erasers were. But if you look at Percy—" Max gestured towards me, but froze halfway through her insult after evaluating my appearance. I raised an eyebrow, wondering if that was a good or a bad thing. Nudge and another little girl giggled while Max blushed, cleared her throat, and turned away from me. "His, um… His voice. It's too rough for an Eraser. And his Brooklyn accent is too heavy."

"Can you stop comparing me to whatever an Eraser is and introduce me to the flock?" I suggested helpfully. This—our situation as well as their conversation— was beyond weird. I could tell, despite the fact that I had absolutely _no _clue what they were talking about. Then again, I'm the kid who runs around slaying mythological creatures, so who am I to judge?

_"What _did you just call us?" A boy who looked exactly like the little girl who was holding a dog squeaked.

"Percy, this is Iggy, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, Total, and Dylan." She pointed to each of them when she said their names, and I almost did a double-take when I saw Dylan. _It couldn't be… _"Guys, this is Percy: local charity worker and avid reader of you-know-who's blog. He knows."

"Thank _god. _I didn't know if I'd be able to keep quiet all through breakfast," the small black dog in Angel's arms announced proudly. I hadn't thought _anything _could get my mind off of 'Dylan' until that dog spoke.

"The dog… _talks,_" I said dubiously, staring at it in disbelief. It really shouldn't have freaked me out as much as it did, but I guess the whole seeing 'Dylan' thing had caught me off-guard. Anything extra was threatening to send me into cardiac arrest.

Max sighed and put her head in her hands. "He didn't know _that _part, Total..." she grumbled.

I shook my head, trying to wrap it around this new plot twist. "Let me get this straight," I clarified. "You guys fly around, with your _own_ wings… while carrying a _dog… _who _talks?_"

"No," said Iggy, the tall blonde that had picked up on my ocean-esque scent.

"We don't carry him," Gazzy said at the same time.

Total puffed out his chest and proclaimed with evident pride, "I fly."

Max glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes, looking at me like she thought I might pass out. I kind of thought I would, too. Instead, I grasped a hold of myself and nodded slowly. "Alright. Cool. I, uh, guess that really shouldn't surprise me, huh?"

The little angelic-looking child, Angel, cocked her head to the side and stared at me intently. Now, I know that the son of Poseidon shouldn't be afraid of a seven- or eight-year-old girl, but I swear, it felt like she could see right into my mind.

"That's because I can," the girl said sweetly.

My jaw dropped instantly, and I stared at her incredulously. I didn't know how many more surprises I could take in one day. I may be part god, but even half-bloods have their limits! "You guys can read minds?" I demanded, hoping to gods that my face wouldn't turn red. If Max had known some of the thoughts I'd had when I'd first seen her… Gods, I would get slapped so fast that I wouldn't even be able to see it coming!

"Just Angel," Dylan— I'll stop putting air quotes around his name; if he wanted to go by something new, then fine, let him— answered, speaking up for the first time. It became very clear, _very _fast, that he didn't like me very much. But that was okay, because I didn't care for him much, either. He rolled his eyes when I clamped my jaw shut and everything about me screamed relief. "Now… are you gonna feed us? Or are you just wasting the flock's time?"

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><p><em><strong>AN: Hmm, seems like Percy knows Dylan from somewhere… Can anybody guess where? I'll give anybody who messages me with the correct answer not only some cyber-cookies, but their own character in this Fic. :D**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note: I appreciate all of the positive feedback, you guys! Four reviews, three alerts, and a fave. And this has only been up for like five days..! You have no idea how much all of this means to me; I genuinely love all of you guys for the support. If I could hug each and every one of you, I would.**_

_**Anyways, this chapter is basically just the flock meeting Sally Jackson (Percy's mom!) and explaining their abilities and such. Let me know if I forgot anything!**_

_**Read and review, please? (: Thanks so much!**_

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><p><em>Max POV.<em>

I turned around on the barstool I was sitting on and smiled at Mrs. Jackson. She was definitely a pretty woman, with straight-ish brown hair and blue eyes that seemed to change color in the sunlight. Her personality was reflected in the carefree way their apartment was decorated; a style which reflected that of my own mother. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Jackson," I said sincerely. When Percy had barged in with us trooping behind him, completely unannounced, and told her we were hungry, she hadn't even batted an eye at feeding six mutant freaks and their freakishly mutated dog. She'd smiled and asked what we wanted. She was one of the few (well, two, if we're gonna be sticklers about keeping track) adults that I was comfortable being around.

She returned my warm smile with a soft one of her own and responded with a reassuring, "It's no problem."

Iggy, however, obviously didn't have the same manners as I did. He cocked his head to the side, looked up at Mrs. Jackson, and inquired, "Why are these waffles blue?" Total began to choke up laughing for reasons only known Iggy, Percy and I. Percy had the decency to stifle his laughter, and I didn't find it all that funny, which left Total laughing by himself. When he realized that nobody would join in, he cleared his throat bashfully and shut up.

Percy's mother blinked back surprise at Iggy's remark and exclaimed, "Oh! I thought… I didn't know you could…"

I gazed at her sympathetically, a silent apology for their crudeness. I was also aware of how weird having a blind kid make a comment on coloring must seem to the people who aren't informed of our abilities. Because it was Mrs. Jackson and not somebody else, I explained it to her. "Iggy can, um, feel colors."

"He can… _feel _them," she repeated dubiously. I winced and nodded.

At the same time, Nudge decided to open her mouth. "Yeah! He's blind but he can feel colors and see things when they're against white, which is really cool! Right, Ig?" She didn't wait for a response before continuing, "And also, he can make things explode! Not like with his mind or anything, that'd be _really _weird, but he can make bombs. He and Gazzy make them constantly! Max used to take them away back when we lived in Colorado in an actual home and before we started getting chased and stuff, but now she never finds them, which is odd, because we have nowhere to hide anything, y'know? So maybe they make them on the spot when we need them during battles and stuff, but they wouldn't have the time or equipment or anything, so maybe—"

"Shut _up!_" Iggy finally exclaimed exasperatedly. In response, Nudge huffed out a breath and crossed her arms over her chest. She gave our resident albino a useless glare and shoved a bite of food into her mouth.

Percy's mom paused for a moment to either soak everything in or brace herself for another Nudge-attack before inquiring, "Can anybody else… do anything special?" She hesitated halfway through, looking for the right words. "Other than the wings, of course… Percy told me all about you guys back when he read your blog."

"_Mom!_" Percy groaned exasperatedly, obviously embarrassed by his former obsession.

I decided to let the 'your' in Mrs. Jackson's comment slip because I liked her. If it was anyone else, I would've gone ape on them about how we had nothing to do with the cretin who had left us (even though I would re-break my heart for the thousandth time by doing so). Whether or not I was going to freak out didn't matter, though, because before I would've even been able to get a syllable out, Nudge decided to pipe up. "Well, I'm clair… clairsen… clairsenti… I can feel leftover vibrations, and like tell anything about an object just by touching it. I can also, like, attract metal, but only kind of, like a really crappy magnet. And also I have great fashion sense, but Gazzy says it doesn't—"

"I just fly really fast," I told the master chef of this apartment, but only to cut off Nudge's rant. I swear, if we locked her in a room by herself and came back in three hours, she'd _still _be talking to herself.

"How fast?" Percy wondered aloud. He looked up and blushed when he realized that he'd said that aloud, but I decided to answer him anyways.

"Most of us hit around one-twenty at a downslope. I can go, like… two-forty going straight on."

After the murmured "wow's, the Gasman decided to share his newest ability with a wicked grin. "I make green clouds," he informed them, leaving out entirely his ventriloquism. No doubt he was saving that piece of information so that he could wreak havoc later.

"Don't even _think _about it," Dylan groaned, which was probably about the third sentence he'd uttered since I'd introduced the flock to Percy.

Mrs. Jackson looked down at our smallest, most conflicted member and graced her with the same gaze that my mom always gave me— a look of adoration mixed with pride and love. She smiled and prompted, "What about you?"

Angel paused and put a finger to her chin, as if thinking about it. I groaned aloud; this would take a while. "Well, I can read minds." At that she shot a fierce glare at Percy, whose face immediately turned red. I made a mental note to beat answers out of the two of them as soon as possible. "And I can also send thoughts, kind of like a walkie-talkie does. And, also, I can control minds. Plus, I can morph. But only kind of so far. I'm working on it."

"That's—"

"Not done," Angel told the kind older woman with a disapproving frown. When all was silent again, she continued with her long freakin' list of abilities. "I can talk to fish. And all of us can breathe underwater."

"Except the new guy," I corrected Angel, jerking my thumb at Dylan.

Dylan, who was apparently a _very _cranky Mr. Perfect today, gave me an icy-cold look as he snapped, "Didn't your mother ever tell you it was rude to point?"

"Nah. We're more of a basic people, with simple premises like 'try not to get shot' and 'don't get knocked up'." I looked at him with a cocked eyebrow and added, "Which, given my company, is obviously _not _an area of concern for us."

There was an awkward silence for a brief moment before everybody burst into side-splitting laughter. Even Mrs. Jackson had to hide her chuckles as I stared down the ever-so-grumpy Dylan. When he opened his mouth to retort I cut it off by commanding, "Dylan. Outside. _Now._"

"No," was his simple reply.

I scowled at the side of Dylan that being in this house was bringing out and informed him, "My flock, my rules." I then shoved him in front of me towards the front door and quickly flashed a forced smile at the rest of the flock as well as the Jacksons. "Sorry about this… I just have to have a quick word with my _underling." _I made sure to put extra emphasis on that before adding,_ "_We'll be right back."

I had taken all of three steps after Dylan when Percy grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to face him. This time his face was a humored one, not a wary one. "How do I know you'll come back?"

I let out a genuine laugh and informed him, "You don't."

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><p><em><strong>AN: Alright, so yeah, this was another short chapter. It would've been longer, but the next scenes are going to be with Percy and his mom, so I really couldn't put **_**that **_**in Max's point of view... but it's longer than the last one! Lmao. Reviews please? (:**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for me to get this up, guys! I was in DC for three days so I had no laptop. ):**_

_**But anyways: This chapter pretty much consists of some conversations between Percy and his mom and then Percy and Dylan, which both drop more major bombs about who Dylan is/was. We have two OCs from the contest (there will be three, I think, but there's one person who guessed the answer who didn't give me any info for an OC so I'll probably just make something up and hope he/she likes it), so don't worry you guys, they'll be coming into play relatively soon. Probably within the next two or three chapters.**_

_**Let me finish this author's note with a letter to my best friend:**_

_**Dear litfreak97,**_

_**I do not know why I am allowing you to have an OC. Not only did I tell you who Dylan was before you read this, but I am also writing you into this already. You as in **_**you, **_**the hobknocker with the Harry Potter glasses. This Fic was your birthday present, though, so I'll let it slide.**_

_**I love you(:**_

_**-yo bitch.**_

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><p>"So… Max, huh?" Mom inquired ever-so-subtly as she tried to start a conversation.<p>

I took a sip of Mountain Dew (blue, of course) and glanced around our dimly-lit apartment. There were six bodies strewn about— Angel and Nudge in my mom's bed, Iggy and the Gasman in mine, Dylan out on the fire escape and Max on the couch with Total curled up on her stomach. They were all passed out, and it was nice seeing them all looking so peaceful. That is, except for… _Dylan. _It would take me a while to get used to his new name. But no matter what he went by or what I called him, things would never change between us. I could feel it.

"Percy?"

I looked back at my mom and snapped out of my thoughts. I registered her initial question and shrugged feebly. "Yeah, the flock is pretty cool."

"I didn't ask about _them, _Percy. I asked about Max."

My face heated up, and I shrugged again. She always knew how to make me uncomfortable. "I don't know. I just met her, Mom! Shouldn't you be warning me to take it slow— which, by the way, I pretty much am, being as I haven't taken any_thing _any_where_— instead of practically telling me to go for it?"

"I know you just met, sweetie, and I know nothing's happened. Max is too smart for that." I raised an eyebrow, trying to decipher whether or not my mom had just insulted me. Apparently it didn't matter, though, because she went on talking. "It's just the way you look at her…"

_How I looked at her? _What was she talking about? Regardless of not knowing what she meant, I felt the blood rush up to my face as I quickly came up with an excuse. "I just think they're really cool, how they have wings and fly and all."

"What about Annabeth?"

My blood ran cold as I thought about my best friend. I thought about my confused feelings towards her, the look of betrayal that would undoubtedly cross her face if she knew Max was staying here, and most of all how she has kissed me back in the Labyrinth, which seemed like it had happened forever ago. All these thoughts ran through my head as I glanced up coolly and inquired, "What about her?"

Mom gave me a patronizing stare, and I couldn't help but shrink back a little. She scrutinized my face before lecturing me, "it isn't exactly gentlemanly to lead them both on, Percy."

"I'm not leading _either _of them on, Mom!" I exclaimed defensively. Why did she have to assume there was something going on between me and all of my girl friends? "I literally _just _met Max. Sure, she's really cool. But they've all been through a lot and I just wanted to do something nice for them. That's _all. _Besides, Max just lost her boyfriend-slash-best friend. I wouldn't want to put her through any more stress; she already has enough to deal with. And Annabeth… I've known her since we were twelve. She's my best friend, Mom. Nothing less, nothing more."

Mom blew a piece of hair out of her face and nodded, seemingly unsatisfied with my answer. It became clear that she wouldn't pursue it, however, when she changed the subject. "When are you going to tell them about _you? _Camp Half-Blood and all that?"

I hesitated before I sheepishly admitted, "I wasn't planning on it…"

She frowned at me, obviously displeased with _that _answer, as well. "It's only fair, being as they told you about all of _their_ secrets and powers and abilities."

"Mom… they'll think I'm crazy."

"Didn't they take that risk with you? And you didn't think _they _were crazy when they told you that they could fly and read minds and feel colors," she challenged, pointing out the obvious flaw in my logic.

I shook my head indignantly. It _so _wasn't the same. "They had _proof._"

"So do you."

Once again, my head swiveled from left to right as I dismissed another one of Mom's rebuttals. "What if they can't see through the Mist? Then they'll think I'm insane, and I'll lose five people I care about." (No, that wasn't a counting error on my part. I cared about five of them. Not six.)

"Bring them to Camp Half-Blood," she advised.

"They wouldn't _see it!_" I exclaimed, frustrated that my logic made no impact on her. "None of them could even get in except…" My sentence trailed off as I shot a useless glare out the fire escape at _Dylan. _

"Maybe Dylan is the only one who can get in without _permission. _But you can still let them in, Percy."

I let out an exasperated sigh and let my head fall into my hands. "You won't just let this go, will you?"

"Of course not, sweetie!" She laughed at how I looked up at her pleadingly and gripped her sides to keep them from splitting. When she regained her motherly composure she informed me, "Honey, I'm just saying. I doubt that being a demigod is going to scare away a group of mutants."

"_Mom…_"

She shook her head and sighed, matching my exasperated tone perfectly. "I get it, I get it. Alright. I'll shut up now."

"Thank you," I said happily, causing another grin to lift her features. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dylan stirring out on the fire escape. I excused myself from the now over conversation with my mother and started my way over to him. I walked over and climbed through the window outside, then leaned against the railing and stared at him. He opened his eyes and jumped when he saw me standing there, obviously a leftover reflex from all the times we've fought. When he began to calm down, I scrutinized his face and demanded, "Do you remember?"

He shrugged warily, and from his expression and change in position I could tell that this exact question had been haunting him ever since he saw me. "I knew you. I… I don't think I liked you much… Did I?"

"I thought you did, at first. But then you kept trying to kill me, so, uh… I guess not."

He paused before saying, "Sorry. I think."

I nodded as recognition of his apology before pressing him, "Do you remember anything else?"

He nodded affirmatively. "Something about a guy named Kronos… I don't think I liked him, either."

"Yeah. You killed him— for now, at least. Remember anybody else?"

His face grew serious as his head bobbed again, signaling yet another _yes. _He drew a deep breath and said gravely, "My best friend. Annabeth. I loved her."

"To Hades you did," I grumbled under my breath. After that was out of my system, I looked up into the eyes of my one-time friend and rival; enemy and ally. I saw in his eyes everything he used to be and everything he was becoming, and I was unsure of which caused me more unease. "So should I call you Dylan, or…"

"Dylan," he said curtly. He analyzed my face just like I had done to him for a moment before stating blatantly, "You're wondering how I did it. Came back."

I bit my lip and admitted defeat with a silent nod. There seemed to be a lot of them going around today. "You promised you would try for rebirth, but this came so quickly…"

"They cloned me from some guy they _said _was named Dylan. Told me he died in a car crash or something. Obviously that isn't true, but I was only like a month old, so I believed it. But anyways, they cloned me from him. His… his body. I don't know how or why I've kept his memory, but some of it is beginning to come back to me. The scientist, Dr. Hans, told me the bullshit story about the guy I was cloned from and sent me to the flock— but not before he grafted wings onto my back. Trust me; it was even more painful than it sounds. I was apparently made to be Max's perfect match or whatever."

I felt my fists clench of their own volition at that remark, but I forced myself to ignore the lead weight that had settled in my stomach. _He _noticed and said, "I can tell you don't like that, Percy, but it's true. But… with every memory that comes back to me, I feel myself becoming even more… I don't know. _Detached _from her, I guess you can call it. All I want right now is for Annabeth to spar with me." He let out a humorless laugh and asked, "Is that odd? I don't want her to kiss me or hug me or even _talk _to me. I just want her to spar with me."

"She's always been at her best while fighting," I murmured softly, thinking about Annabeth's gray eyes and how her hair always blew in her face. She was fierce. And she was beautiful; no doubt about it.

Dylan continued staring down at the floor, obviously agreeing with my thoughts completely. He gazed up after a moment, and his clear blue eyes were clearly tortured. "Can I ask a favor?"

I looked at his earnest face, and I was very much tempted to deny his request. However, the nicer side of me prevailed and said, "Sure. Anything."

He paused to clear his throat before he opened his mouth to speak. He seemed nervous as he managed to get out a wary, "Can you… can you bring me to the camp? Please? I need to see…" His sentence trailed off, and I can't help but wonder what he was going to finish that with.

I hesitated before speaking as well, but for an entirely different reason. I was conflicted by his request. "Listen… you're kind of a controversial topic with all of the gods and demigods. There's come people at Camp Half-Blood who would be _very _upset to find you being reincarnated or cloned or whatever the hell you said made you still alive."

Dylan frowned but seemingly accepted my response. I was about to apologize when a defiantly blatant voice demanded, "What's Camp Half-Blood?"

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><p><em><strong>AN: Alright, so, I won't write a letter this time. But I will ask you very very very kindly to please review? Because I love reviews. They make me mucho happy. :D I'm actually insanely thrilled with the response to this story so far (we don't have a lot of reviews, but there's a hell of a lot of viewers). So I thank you for that, and I guess because of it I'll forgive those of you who don't review. Maybe.**_

_**And to Jamie, happy birthday. Even though we keep changing the date on you.**_

_**To all of my readers, keep reading and let me know what you think! (Pretty please with a cherry on top?)**_


	5. List of OCs

_**Author's Note: Helloo everybody! I got kind of caught up in my one-shot challenges, so I realize that I've been neglecting this and my other Fics. So I apologize for that. But I figured while I take a momentary leave of absence, I might as well introduce you to our three OCs. But, first, let me respond to some of my anonymous reviews!**_

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><p><em><strong>To The Comment on Anonymous with No Name: Nope, none of the OCs are mutant demigods or children of the Big Three. That's way too cliché.<strong>_

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><p><em><strong>To YouDontWantToKnow: I'm not sure what I'm doing with Fang, actually. But no, he isn't a demigod. <strong>_

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><p><em><strong>To Shell: Fang won't already be at camp. I'm not sure whether or not he'll show up later, though. <strong>__**And no, none of the mutants are demigods. I actually hadn't thought of that; the FlyBoys thing is a really good idea! Mind if I use it?**_

_**Now… On to the OCs!**_

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><p><span>List of OCs:<span>

**Alecto Star**_**(Created by: Hadesrocks)**_

Nickname: Alec

Gender: Female

Age: 10

Appearance: short and spiky jet-black hair, Black-Brown eyes, Pale white skin, Black T-shirts, Denim pants, Sneakers, Gold wrist band (shield), A pocket knife that turns into a sword

Personality: Will always try to help a person in need, Holds grudges, Stubborn, Smart, Usually acts before thinking, Impulsive

Likes: Friends, Chiron, being sent on quests.

Dislikes: Spiders, being judged, being treated like a kid.

Abilities: Control over the earth , Put people to sleep, Can control creatures of the shadows, Persuasive, Good liar

Has a mysterious past to others because she doesn't like to talk about how her mom abandoned her

Daughter of Hades

**Riot**_**(Created by Angel's Detective)**_

Birth Name: Grace Thunderson

Gender: Female

Age: 14

Appearance: She has black wings with a little silver. She has raven black, straight hair that reaches her upper waist and she has a silver streak in it. Her skin is snow white, and she's small in size. Her eyes are a bright sapphire blue and she has a scar running through her right eye. Only wears black, purple, red, blue, and silver. Punk-rocker chick.

Personality: Feisty, sarcastic, untrustworthy, loyal, acts tough, secretly wants someone to take care of her, independent, impulsive.

Likes: Green Day, Linkin Park, thunderstorms, messing with people, winter, the cold, Christmas, to read, to draw, to listen to music, to play piano.

Dislikes: Backstabbers, whiny teenagers, cold showers, chocolate.

Abilities: She can sense emotions, and talk to wolves and see a bit into the future. She's blind in her right eye and sometimes she can see the future in it.

Past: constantly betrayed, ran away from home when she was four due to abuse from her parents, a scientist from the school found her.

Mutant (From the School)

**Charley Fresco **_**(Created by litfreak97)**_

Nickname: Charles.

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Appearance: Short, cropped chocolate brown hair. Bright green eyes that always seem eerily empty. Freckles splattered over his pale face.

Personality: Shy, reserved, fiercely loyal to his friends.

Likes: Listening to people talk, being important to people, helping his friends, making a difference.

Dislikes: Not being seen, being invisible, being ignored, and being referred to as 'the quiet kid'.

Abilities: has what you might call a 'green thumb'. Very good with plants and can make them grow at will.

Past: Lived a relatively perfect life. His mom was there for him, and they always had sufficient monetary support. Discovered he was a half-blood at the age of twelve, and everything just kind of went downhill from there. His mom was killed in Manhattan while the Half-Bloods were fighting Kronos, and he's still recovering.

Son of Demeter.

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><p><em><strong>AN: To those three creators, you may have noticed that I added some things. Let me know if what I added is alright and what, if anything, to change or add in to the descriptions? Thank you so much!**_


	6. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: asjdfnladnfklads. Hi. **_

_**I'm aware that this is a relatively short chapter, and I'm sorry for that. I've been having writer's block with absolutely all of my stories (which is my excuse for not updating in two whole weeks), and it's killing me! I cut this one off short because I wanted to finally get something out there, haha.**_

_**Read and review, please? (:**_

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><p><em>Max's POV.<em>

I _had _to have stood near the window that led to Percy's fire escape for probably at _least_ five minutes. I had been listening in on Percy and Dylan's conversation. I didn't mean to eavesdrop. Honestly. I had just been on my way to get a cup of water when I heard Dylan say, "You're wondering how I did it. Came back."

Obviously, that caught my attention, so I stood by the window and listened. If he was about to reveal some kind of top-secret information, as leader I had to know. That was when I heard Percy reply with an earnestly bashful, "You promised you would try for rebirth, but this came so quickly…"

After that first sentence, every word out of their mouths became another drop of water adding to their overflowing bucket of crazy. It was about the time that Percy mentioned people wanting my apparently _ex-_obsessed-with-me companion dead that I stepped outside with one simple question. "What's Camp Half-Blood?"

There was a momentary pause as the boys looked between each other. A solid minute or two passed before Dylan finally spoke up, "You'll think we're crazy."

My eyebrows shot up into arches as I responded, "I'm a mutant science experiment with wings and a voice in my head that isn't mine." I leaned back against the side of the building and trained my eyes on Percy. Our gazes locked on each other and I challenged, "Try me."

Percy hesitated, debating whether or not _my_ lack of sanity was reason enough to share_ his_. Apparently he decided that it was, because he asked me a responding question with a cautious undertone. "What do you know about Greek mythology?"

Remembering the flock's brief stint at Max's School for Mutants, I recalled the little bit we'd studied on that subject. "The Big Three, Athena, Hercules… that stuff?"

He nodded and once again stopped for a second before going on. "Well, it's all real. All true. And sometimes, a god will come down to earth in the form of a human and fall in love with a mortal. When they have a kid, the child is called a demigod or a half-blood."

"Like Achilles?" I checked, making sure that I had the general concept down.

He nodded. "Exactly. And Camp Half-Blood is the only place we can go to train and live and be safe. Anywhere else, we all get attacked by an endless stream of monsters. I can't even _begin _to tell you how many times monsters have gotten me expelled from schools! They're such pains."

I stared at him blankly, waiting to see if he was done. When it became clear that he was, I cocked my head slightly to the side. "So… what? You're half-god, half-mortal?"

"Son of Poseidon," he responded affirmatively.

I mulled all of that over before I decided on a suitable response. "Prove it to me. Not that I doubt you or anything, it's just that people are assholes."

Percy smiled a bit before his mouth went straight and he began chewing his lip uncertainly. "I don't know if you'll be able to see this, but…" He stared down at my glass of water and gave it an intense look. I felt my jaw drop to the floor as a thin stream of water rose into the air until there was a floating lake at my eye level. Percy clenched his fists in concentration, and three letters began to slowly form out of the blob in shaky cursive.

_M… A… X. _Max. Just like the Ouija board had done back at AFO Schmidt, only cooler and not scary. And in cursive.

The water suddenly dropped to the floor, splashing both mine and Percy's legs in the process. I looked down at the puddle in shock, barely looking up in time to see Percy's blush. "I'm still working on that part," he mumbled under his breath.

I shook my head incredulously and was about to gush over what he'd done when I remembered that I was Max. Max doesn't do that. Besides; I couldn't find the right words to gush with, and I wasn't going to make myself look like a ditz by rambling on and on about nothing. So instead, I settled on a simple "Holy crap!"

An overly-excited goofy grin appeared on his face, and his spirits seemed to soar. His entire body's posture straightened as he double-checked proudly, "You saw it?"

I nodded affirmatively and stared at him, awestruck. That was freaking _awesome! _"That was freaking _awesome!_"

"You liked it?" he asked. His tone was half-giddy and half-uncertain.

I let out a laugh and assured him, "Of course I liked it! I'd be freaking crazy not to! That was _so cool!_"

"Fucking amazing," I just barely heard Dylan grumble sarcastically.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So? Thoughts? (: I feel like I went a little OOC with Max's reaction to Percy, but I couldn't think of how else to have her act so I just kept it. Sorry about that. :P Anyways, I make no promises about when the next chapter will be up. Anywhere from a day to three weeks from now. Teehee.**_

_**Review?(:**_


	7. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: Wow… this update took a while! Sorry about that guys. I'm kind of losing ideas for this story, so it's taking a lot longer than I'd expected to write the chapters and get them up. I'd expected my break from this to last maybe a few days, but instead it turned into freaking forever! I'm so sorry about that… My bad. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**_

_**Review? :D**_

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><p><em>Percy's POV.<em>

I removed my upper body from its resting place against the cool countertop and sighed. I really didn't want to do this, and I had been putting it off for a week. Said week was full of Max's disappointed glares, but when it became apparent that I wasn't giving in, she'd cornered me and forced me to do this. I was about to make up some excuse to leave, but Max shot me one of her you'd-better-do-what-I-say-before-I-kick-your-ass looks— and you'd better _believe _she would do it. Under that threat, I decided to look up at the rest of the flock and begin my tale. "So, um, I'm taking you guys with me to my summer camp in about a week."

Nudge's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She began to bounce up and down as excitement surged through her body and she shouted, "OH EM GEE! I've never been to summer camp! I can't wait to run around and have campfires and hike and sleep in a tent and throw tent parties and… OOH! Maybe I'll find a cute boy like you, just like Maximum did!"

"NUDGE!" Max said sharply. Her face was red; whether from anger at the comment or being called by her full name, or shock that Nudge would say that, I wasn't sure. I had seen Angry Max before, but Embarrassed Max was a foreign concept to me. I got a closer look at the flustered expression on her face and decided that maybe, just _maybe, _there was a first time for everything.

At the realization that she was actually _blushing, _my face began to heat up as well. Instead of letting the situation's awkward silence continue, I interrupted it by faking a cough and then correcting Nudge's misconceptions about my camp. "It's not that kind of camp, Nudge. Sorry. It's more of a training facility, actually. It's called Camp Half-Blood. We sleep in cabins, and we don't leave campgrounds unless—"

"Half-Blood?" Iggy interrupted. He cocked his head to the side and frowned as he inquired, "Isn't that like a demigod?"

"Exactly," I agreed, feeling quite relieved that he had made the connection. The fact that at least one of the three kids I had to explain to knew what I was talking about would make this job a lot easier. (I say three because Max and Dylan already know, and Angel is a freaking _mind-reader_, so she's known since she met me, and Total was out with my mom.) I went on to add, "I'm… uh, I'm a demigod. All of the campers at the camp are."

Gazzy's face split into a huge grin as he exclaimed, "Does that mean _we're _demigods?"

I hesitated before shaking my head. Gazzy sighed, and I watched his face fall. Not wanting to completely crush the kid's dreams, I decided to give him a little hope. "Other than Dylan, I've never heard of a demigod with wings, Gaz. I'm sorry. But, hey; Dylan came back to life, so anything's possible, right?"

Before Gazzy could react to my statement, Little Miss Talks A Lot— I call her that affectionately, by the way. It's not a snide or sarcastic thing— cut in. "Perseus, what's a demigod?"

I groaned at her calling me by my full name— lately, she had been doing that to the lot of us. Max was Maximum, Gazzy was the Gasman, and I was Perseus. "Must you call me that? _Really?" _When her facial expression did not change from its inquisitive state, I frowned slightly.

This time, Max cut in to explain when it became clear that I wasn't going to. She was much better at letting Nudge's little fads roll off of her back than I was. But then again, she was more used to it. I'd only known them for a week, whereas Max had known them for the duration of their lives. "A demigod is a person who has one mortal parent and one godly parent," she told Nudge.

Iggy frowned in my direction— I still couldn't get used to the fact that he always knew where to look and go, despite being blind— and asked, "So you're… what? Only half-human?"

I nodded, not realizing that he couldn't see it. Max smacked the back of my head to jump-start my memory and I confirmed his assumption verbally. "I'm the son of Poseidon. He's god of the sea."

From his seat at one of the counter's barstools, Dylan decided to speak up. "Son of Hermes here." He paused and looked at me for confirmation. "I am the son of Hermes, right?"

I nodded again, but vigorously this time. I was encouraged by the fact that shreds of memory, no matter how tiny, were coming back to him. I directed my words at the flock as I said, "It's kind of cool, knowing half of you is so important— but then, I doubt it's as cool as being an avian-human hybrid."

Iggy shook his head and scoffed, "Yeah, because having random people trying to kill you is _so _much fun."

Angel reprimanded him by saying, "Iggy, be quiet. You know that flying in the air and being so strong and fast is amazing."

He grumbled something under his breath that I didn't quite catch, but Angel did and she sent him a death glare. I decided to take the opportunity to tell Iggy the reality of my situation. "Nothing worth being comes without enemies. For example, I don't have _people _trying to kill me— most of the time—, but I have monsters and a few gods and titans that are after me. For example, have you ever heard of Kronos? He took over this demigod Luke's body and—" I remembered that said demigod's clone was in the room and decided to wrap up the story. "Long story short, we kicked ass and Kronos is gone for a while."

To make up for keeping the flock from hearing the story, Dylan piped up, "The demigods get chased by monsters almost nonstop. When I was a kid, I—" His sentence broke off and he frowned, trying to recollect the memory he'd been about to tell.

To give him thinking time, I drew the flock's attention away from him and went on discussing monsters. "Yeah, we're almost always fighting something. Hydra, the Minotaur, Furies… You name it; I've fought it." My brow furrowed and a crease appeared in my forehead as I added hastily, "Don't say the names of monsters out loud, though, unless it's absolutely necessary. Please. If they hear their names, they'll come, and I don't feel like dealing with anything right now."

"What happens if they come?" Angel asked, piping up for a second time. I guess that this time, the answer she was seeking wasn't already floating around in my mind.

"I would use this—" Here came the moment of truth. I took out Riptide and uncapped him, watching as the celestial bronze blade shot out. It stopped within inches of hitting Iggy, but he took no notice of it. I looked over at the awestruck faces and smiled as I ended my sentence. "—and blow them into dust."

"Maybe you should put that away before you accidentally stab someone," Angel suggested. I grinned even wider and shoved the tip through her and pulled it out, watching it go through her body and leaving her unscathed.

"It only hurts monsters and demigods. The celestial bronze can't pierce humans." I looked around at everyone, all of which were all looking at me in shock, and I scoffed. "You don't really think I would ever kill any of you! I mean, _seriously!_"

Max frowned as she looked at me and said, "When you're us, you can never be too sure."

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there's my comeback chapter! Next update will be their arrival to the camp, I think, but that's subject to change. I'm not sure when it'll be out, but I'll try for within the next week. :D**_

_**Review?**_


	8. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note: I know this story is a birthday present for my best friend, but this chapter is dedicated to… the REVIEW FAIRY! Also known as TwIx27:D Because all of her reviews made my day yesterday. :D In addition, two of the OCs will make their first appearances in this chapter. Bahdeedahh. I can't think of anything else to put in the author's note. Blah. Kay. Bye.**_

_**And starting next chapter, I'm going to respond to all reviews in the author's notes. :D Now I'm for serious. Kay. Bye.**_

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><p><em>Max's POV.<em>

When we left Percy's apartment a week later, there was a lot of hugging and kissing and— on Percy's mom's side— crying. Total was reduced to a blubbering mess on the floor. He had loved Mrs. Jackson more than almost anything else in the world; they'd grown very close in this past two weeks we'd stayed in this little apartment. He looked up at me and sniffled as he sobbed, "Max, please marry Percy. I can't leave Sally! She's a modern Amelia Earhart!"

I cocked an eyebrow at the dog's analogy and inquired, "What exactly does Mrs. Jackson have in common with a girl who died flying over the Pacific?"

At the same exact time, I heard Percy demand, "What does everybody think there's something going on between me and Max?"

Before anybody could say anything about his comment _or _the shade of red my face was becoming, I rolled my eyes and picked Total up from where he wept at Mrs. Jackson's feet. "Come on, little guy. Get over it. You'll see her again someday."

Mrs. Jackson looked at me with tear-filled eyes and asked, "Really? You're coming back?"

I smiled at her, feeling my own eyes well up when I realized how genuine she was. She legitimately _wanted _us to come back— but, being as I'm freaking _Maximum Ride, _I obviously allowed zero tears to escape. I allowed her to wrap me into a hug as I said, "I promise we'll try and come back and visit." That was the most I could promise under the circumstances.

Total's weeping quieted down as he whined, "Percy…"

Percy, being a total softie (see what I did there? _Total _softie?), kneeled down as close to Total's level as he could get and asked, "Yeah, buddy?"

He pouted and inquired, "You know how you could make me feel better? If you demonstrated with your sword again and showed me how it doesn't hurt mortals. I mean, it's only fair, being as I missed it the first time…"

Percy groaned and got back up to his feet as he said, "Total, you've been grumbling about this for freaking _forever! _Can't you just get over it?"

"No!" he exclaimed, his misery turned into pissed off-ness. "I don't care if you don't know whether or not it'll actually hurt me! I'm a dog! We're tough! I can take it!" Total then began uncharacteristically barking like a maniac.

I scowled down at the Scottie and gave his midsection a light tap with my foot. "Shut up," I commanded, just as I usually did whenever he got too out of hand. Lately, all he did was either grumble about not getting to see Angel get stabbed with a sword or cry about missing either Akila or Mrs. Jackson. All three actions made me want to stab _him _with a sword.

But, hey; it's how I show I care.

Moving on… You know how little girls always feel the need to write stories about pretty princesses who live in pretty castles who go for rides on a pretty pegasus? Well, apparently those stories have some truth to them. I say that because while we were getting ready to leave, Percy whistled out the window and what appeared but— you guessed it— a big-ass horse with wings. Percy told us his name was Blackjack and that because he was the son of Poseidon, he can somehow talk to him. Yup. Water Boy just got a hell of a lot more interesting.

We took off after about an hour of goodbyes with Mrs. Jackson. Let me just tell you, flying with a pegasus was one of the strangest experiences of my life— and I grew up in a lab for of mad scientists. Imagine being in a plane, looking over to check on one of your kids, and seeing a horse there instead. That's what happened to me every few minutes, except that I wasn't in a plane. I would look over to make sure that Angel wasn't having difficulty with the flight, and then WHAM. I would see a big honkin' pegasus instead. I think he was purposely trying to annoy me, because everywhere I looked he was there. I'd look left; he'd be blocking Iggy. I'd look up; my view of Gazzy was gone. It was kind of insanely annoying.

When we finally touched down on land, Blackjack felt the need to land directly in front of me, causing me to stop my landing abruptly and fall flat on my face. I looked up from my spot on the ground and glared at the horse, who was staring at me with what I thought might be a smug look. But then again, what do I know? I'm an eternally paranoid mutant hybrid with a recurring voice in my head who thinks that a horse is giving me a dirty look.

I really hope I'm not as insane as I just made myself sound.

"Blackjack!" Percy scolded immediately. He got down and offered me a hand, which I smacked away as I got to my feet. As flustered and off-guard as I may have been, no situation would _ever _entice the swallowing of my pride. While I steadied myself, Percy turned back to Blackjack and exclaimed, "I don't _care _what you think about her! You have to be nice to my friends." He then smiled weakly at me and added, "I'm sorry. He's not usually like this."

"Maybe he's the jealous type," Gazzy piped up happily. It was his first time speaking since the goodbyes— he'd been uncharacteristically quiet during the whole trip, and I was thrilled to hear him being himself again. I mussed his hair and draped my arms around his shoulders. I looked up from his smiling face and saw Percy watching us. I cocked an eyebrow and demanded, "What're _you _looking at, Water Boy?"

"Water Boy. That's a new one," he commented. "And nothing. It's just kind of… I don't know." He caught my skeptical glance and a blush crept onto his cheekbones. "I don't know. I just… I… I don't know."

Angel began stifling a laugh, and before I knew it, so was everyone else in the flock. Even Dylan and Iggy were doubled over in laughter at my and Percy's expense. I glared at them and demanded, "What the hell?"

Angel smiled her angelic smile as she said devilishly, "Nothing, nothing at all. It's just that Percy's thoughts are really cute, right guys?"

Total nodded enthusiastically as Nudge began, "OH MY GOD Perseus, you have such cute thoughts, and the look on your face was adorable, and it's so nice the way you think of us all, and you're right, Maximum really is a great mom to us, and it's just so obvious that you two—"

"Will you stop freaking calling us by our full names?" I demanded, wanting to save myself the embarrassment that whatever she was going to finish her sentence with would undoubtedly ensue.

Iggy grinned and said with an evil smile, "Come _on, Maximum. _It's so obvious that you and _Perseus _are adorable together."

I scowled at him, and it made me feel better despite the fact that he couldn't see it. "I'm going to walk up the hill and take my chances with that dragon wrapped around the tree," I snapped. My face paled when I realized what I had said. I stared up at it, hoping to god that Percy had slipped something into my food and I was just hallucinating.

Percy laughed at my facial expression and assured me, "He's harmless. Don't worry about it." He paused and edited his statement to make it less of a lie. "Well, technically he's a dragon, so he isn't harmless. But he won't hurt _you _guys."

"Are you sure?" Gazzy asked, the smile almost completely wiped off his face. "Most of the stories with dragons and kids don't end well…"

Percy smiled in a way that even _I _found to be reassuring and told him, "Don't worry, Gaz. You're going to be fine. He only hurts bad guys." His eyes momentarily shifted over to Dylan and then up at the dragon as he announced, "I, Percy Jackson, grant Maximum Ride, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Total, and Angel access to Camp Half-Blood." Percy began leading Blackjack up the hill before turning back to us to ask, "You coming?"

We adamantly followed him past a volleyball court to one of a large building that Percy introduced to us as the Big House. I heard Total grumble something about the name being 'so original' before a high-pitched voice exclaimed, "You're back!"

"Annabeth?" Almost before Percy even had a chance to turn around, a blonde girl— whose name was Annabeth, apparently— crashed into his arms and enveloped him in a hug. I couldn't help but frown a tad as I watched them just kind of… well, _hug_, rocking back and forth slightly. I cleared my throat after a moment, reminding them that other people were here to witness their little love-fest. Percy broke off the embrace and exclaimed, "Oh! Annabeth, this is Max, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Total."

"Nice to meet you," she said. Her tone was genuine, but she was giving me a scrutinizing glare. I could tell that she was judging me with her cool, gray eyes; sizing me up. But then, I think I might've been doing the exact same thing.

"Right back atcha," I said drily. I could feel the tension between us; it was thick enough to cut it with a knife. (That's a saying, I think. Right? If it's not… oh well. I'm supposed to save the freaking world; you can cut me a little slack.)

Just then, two boys ran up. One of them had short brown hair. He had vibrant green eyes that looked almost empty, as if his entire life had been recently torn away from him. His face was splattered with freckles, giving him a very boyish look that didn't pair well with his facial expression. From the way he was standing behind his friend, I could tell that he was really shy.

The friend he was hiding behind was wearing glasses exactly like Harry Potter's, which covered his warm, chocolate-colored eyes. He had long, brown hair that fell just above his eyes to match. I could tell that if he got contacts and sex hair, he'd be insanely hot. _**(A/N: Seriously, Jaymeh. Do it.)**_

The kid in front smiled at us and said openly, "I'm Jamie. Jamie Lovegood." He stuck out a hand and added, "You guys are those flying kids from the whole 'Save the Planet' campaigns, right?"

Iggy scowled and said, "Look at that, we're friggen famous."

"No shit," I retorted to Iggy, then turned my attention back to the Jamie kid. "Hi, I'm Max. That's Iggy, Nudge, Angel, Total, and the Gasman. Don't ask."

"Well, the guy standing behind me is my friend Charley." Jamie turned to the guy and added, "Charley, they're not gonna bite you. They aren't biters. I think. I mean… You know what I meant."

Charley frowned, looked past Jamie, and muttered out a quiet, "Hi."

Annabeth moved back to stand at Jamie's side before inquiring, "Seaweed Brain, did you bring them to Chiron yet?"

Percy gestured to where we stood in front of the Big House and said, "That's _kinda _what I'm doing." He grabbed my wrist and began to pull me up the stairs into the building. Had Annabeth not been there, I probably would've smacked him. I motioned for the flock to follow me and as I did, I couldn't help but watch Annabeth's eyes turn stormy while she watched Percy hold the door open for me. I barely resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at her as I walked into the building with the flock on my tail.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So, Jaymeh. Was my description of you accurate enough?(;**_

_**Next chapter will most likely consist of the flock's conversation with Dionysus and Chiron… But it'll probably be OOC because I don't know those characters well.**_

_**Review?(:**_


	9. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note: So this chapter is going to be Percy's conversation between Chiron and Dionysus, which means it'll be a mad horrible chapter because I don't know either character well enough to portray them correctly. Boo. ): Review response time! :D**_

—_**TwIx27: I'm glad that **_**I **_**could make **_**you **_**happy with the dedication! :D And agreed yo. It's kind of hard to respond to reviews when there aren't any. I mean, I'm getting hits; just no reviews! (Scratch that. I got more:D) "/ And hey; a review that's a few hours late is better than none at all! :D I'm glad you enjoyed Blackjack's issues(: And hell yeah! You can't honestly expect Annabeth to go down without a fight(: And HEY! I like smiley faces! :D And hyperness is fun! :D Thanks for reading dearie. As mentioned, I love you. :D**_

—_**PlusAnimaFan13: Thank you sooooo much! :D I'm glad you like the title and the story. Above all, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING! It means a lot to me(:**_

—_**: I have already have plans for Annabeth's love life :D Hopefully you won't be disappointed.**_

—_**WhiteWinterStar: Here you go! Another update(:**_

_**Keep the reviews coming, guys! It makes me happy to the MAX! :D (No pun intended.)**_

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><p><em>Percy's POV.<em>

As we strolled into the Big House, I became extremely conscious of where my skin made contact with Max's. I dropped her wrist like a hot potato, but instantly regretted it when I realized how empty my hand felt without it being enclosed around her. I fought the urge to grab it back and held my hand to my side, fingers twitching slightly as they itched for contact with Max.

_What the hell is wrong with me?_

I cleared my throat to make sure my voice didn't crack as I said, "Um, Mr. D? Hi."

Dionysus looked up at us and groaned when he saw so many kids. "_More _campers? And what, exactly, is a _dog _doing here? Is he a snack for your hellhound?"

"No, Mr. D, Mrs. O'Leary has nothing to do with this." I let out a thankful sigh when I didn't hear Total's voice speak up. "Where's Chiron?"

"_Chiron!_" Dionysus called up the stairs. A moment later, I heard the signature _clop clop clop _that meant Chiron was coming down to meet us.

"Ah, Percy," he greeted with a smile. He looked past me at the blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenager sporting a baseball cap and sunglasses to hide his features and said softly, "Luke."

Dylan sighed and removed his disguise before saying, "It worked on _Annabeth._" He then casted me a look of shock and added, "I can't believe it worked on _Annabeth!_"

"Nobody expects to see a dead boy," the Gasman told him simply.

"If it helps any, I didn't recognize you, either," Iggy reassured him. Dylan shot Iggy a glare that was lost on our blind mutant friend.

Chiron came down the steps the rest of the way and stood in front of us. He studied our little group for a moment before inquiring, "Percy, what is the meaning of this? They are not demigods… am I correct?"

I nodded impishly before beginning my speech. "Yes, you're correct. This is Max, Nudge, Total, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and you already know Luke— but he goes by Dylan now."

Chiron frowned at me slightly before inquiring, "And why are they here? What has possessed you to invite these children into our camp? I trust you have a good reason."

"I'll take it from here." Max stepped in front of me and said, "Chiron, Mr. D. I'm, uh… I'm Max. And this is my flock." I watched Max's wings unfold to their full thirteen-foot span as she went on, "We grew up in the School, a horrible lab with a bunch of mad scientists. One day, they thought, '_hey! _Why not take some innocent babies, steal them from their mothers, and give them bird genes?' And that's exactly what they did. We escaped the School when I was really young, and up until about a year or two ago, we lived in a house in Colorado. Long story short we had to leave, and we've been on the run ever since. I ran into Percy in New York two or three weeks ago. I overheard him talking to Dyl— well, _Luke, _apparently, about the camp. I made them explain it to us, and Percy thought it would be best to bring us here." She stopped there, satisfied with her explanation.

Dionysus stared at Max's wings with a bored expression and said, "I've seen stranger."

I silently pleaded her not to sarcastically retort. My prayers were answered when her only response to his snarky comment was to nod and admit, "We're normal compared to most of their experiments."

I casted my gaze over to Chiron— from his facial expression, I could tell that he was internally debating whether or not to allow them to stay. His eyes almost immediately shot to Angel, and his face went blank for a moment before he regained his composure and laughed. "A telepath, eh? I haven't had anyone try and control my mind for quite some time."

Angel's face went from confused to angry to embarrassed in all of about three seconds. I couldn't help but frown at how used she was to being in control— she was way too young to be able to make such large impacts on people. The moment that thought had crossed my mind, I received a death glare from a blonde-haired, blue-eyed child.

_Crap. She's gonna get me for that one._

She continued to stare at me as Chiron sighed and waved everyone along. "Come, children. It's time for the orientation film."

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><p><em><strong>AN: Okay, I know that was a really short and really crappy chapter. I'm really sorry about that. But truth be told, I was just eager to get out a chapter so that nobody thought I gave up on the story. I promise next chapter will be both better and over a thousand words! I don't think I can apologize enough for giving you this mess. ):**_


	10. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note: So I'm pretty sure where I'm going to go with this story, but I'm not certain on how to get there. Lmao. I'm thinking I'll cut it off at the point where Percy disappears right before The Lost Hero starts… What do you guys think? Is that a good place to end it?**_

_**Also, Hadesrocks's OC is coming in during this chapter. But don't worry, Angel's Dectective; I haven't forgotten about Riot! I actually have to message you about her to figure out how she'll come into the story… :P**_

_**Review Response time! :D**_

—_**Lumina Balderson: I've never even heard of Norse mythology… oops. My bad. But I'll look into it and let you know what I think of your idea!**_

—_**TwIx27: You liked it? Really? YAY! :D I'm glad one of us did, lmao. And it's okay! Feel free to be late as much as you'd like(: And HOLY BABY JESUS. YOU FREAKING REVIEW FAIRY, YOU. I LOVE YOU FOR HELPING ME OUT AND PUBLICIZING. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. And I promise you will be missed! :D**_

—_**WhiteWinterStar: I'm glad you don't mind. :D And yeah, I kind of completely forgot about him, so after I published the story I realized that I didn't have Annabeth freak out or anything. I decided to make an excuse for it in the last chapter… Oops(: Also, I LOVE YOUR IDEA. Do you mind if I use it? Really and truly? Because if you don't mind I would love to.**_

—_**Fanfiction to the Max: I'm glad you liked it! I was all down on myself because I feel like it was totally half-ass. But I'm glad you liked it. That makes me feel a hell of a lot better3**_

_**Keep the reviews coming, guys! :D**_

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><p><em>Max's POV.<em>

I forced a smile throughout the introduction to camp: the orientation film, the cabins (we would be staying in Hermes), the pegasus stables… I managed to nod and agree with everything Percy explained to me without uttering one sarcastic remark. All was going well until I reached the strawberry fields.

When I saw the field, I froze in my tracks. There were rows after rows of strawberry plants, and I couldn't help myself. I stared with a pained expression, remembering the fight that had started… everything. The kidnapping of Angel, the loss of our home, my getting shot by those assholes bothering Ella, being on the run… Every bad memory flashed behind my eyes, causing a Casanova of emotions within me. Anger, hatred, and despair flowed through my veins as freely as my blood does.

_Damn strawberries._

I was shaken out of my trance by a careful hand put on my shoulder. I whirled to face Percy, who was gazing at me with a concerned expression. He stared at my face for a few moments before asking softly, "Are you okay?"

I swatted his arm away and wiped away the tears that were threatening to escape my water-filled eyes with the back of my hand. I glared at him and snapped defensively, "I'm _fine._" He nodded, having learned enough about me in the past few weeks to know to just drop it. Angel, however, could read my mind and snaked her hand through mine. I smiled at her before cocking an eyebrow at Percy and commanding, "Lead the way, Oh Wise One."

He laughed and a smile lit up his face, causing his sea-colored eyes to sparkle. I felt the corners of my lips twitch upwards at how carefree he seemed, but paid no mind to it as we meandered through the campgrounds. He showed us around the entire area, but Iggy stopped him when we got to the climbing wall. "Something's burning," he said abruptly. He stopped and sniffed the air before inquiring, "Why is something burning?"

Percy smiled slightly and informed him, "We're at the climbing wall. It's kind of like extreme rock-climbing for demigods."

"What's so extreme about it?" Gazzy asked, staring at the wall with a curious look shining in his eyes.

"Nobody's on it right now, so you can't see it, but— hey, look! One of the new campers are here." He waved the girl over and exclaimed, "Alecto! Care to show off your mad skills on the wall?" As the girl grinned and approached us, Percy explained the wall to the Igster. "While you're climbing, lava and boulders come down at you. You have to dodge it, which would be the extreme part. There's two walls, and they move closer to each other with time. Depending on your capability, more stuff comes down on you, and the walls move faster."

"She's only, like, ten!" Nudge exclaimed. "How do you expect her to do this? What if she gets hurt? Or, what if she falls, and like a boulder lands on her, and then lava pours down and burns her, and she gets really hurt or dies? Or, or, _or, _what if the walls are too fast and she gets squished! It'll be all our faults!"

Alecto glared at Nudge with a fiery passion burning in her dark-as-night eyes. Said eyes reminded me a little— well, a _lot— _of a certain complete _asshole _that bailed when it counted. (I wonder who that could be? Hmm.) The girl took a step closer to Nudge and snapped, "I'm not some stupid kid! I know what I'm doing!" She then redirected her attention to Percy and commanded, "Turn it up. I'm climbing that bitch."

"Watch your mouth," Percy scolded her lightly, but the expression that molded her features told him to shut up and do what she said. I decided instantly that I liked this girl, despite her young age. I watched as Percy turned the wall up to the best level. We watched as she scurried up the wall, dodging boulders and lava with what seemed like no effort. She reached the top before the walls were even remotely close to each other, then smirked down at us smugly. "See? I told you I'm not just a stupid kid."

Dylan gazed up at her for a moment before asking Percy, "Was I good at the wall? I feel like I might have been."

Percy paused for a moment to consider the question before deciding, "Why don't you try it? I'll put it on the lowest setting, and we can go up from there if you do well."

Dylan nodded and stared up at the wall nervously. His apprehensive face quickly morphed to a determined one as he stood at the bottom. The moment Alecto was down, he handed her his hat and sunglasses and stared at his goal: the top. "Ready," he said.

Percy turned the level down to the easiest one there was before calling over to Dylan to let him know that it was ready. We watched as Dylan began to struggle with the task of climbing up. It wasn't that he wasn't strong or he was getting hit a lot; he was just having trouble getting a grip on the rocks and kept slipping.

When Dylan was about halfway, that stupid blonde chick from before— Annabeth, I think her name was— came over. She was playing with a dagger absentmindedly as she approached. "Percy, hi, I need to talk—" Her sentence stopped short when her eyes landed on me, and then her nervous persona turned into a mask of anger. I wondered what the hell her problem was… or, better yet, what _my _problem was. I had an immense hatred for her, and I barely knew her. Angry sparks flew between our eyes as we evaluated each other; all in all, I had a feeling that she would be a worthy opponent. An opponent in what, I'm unsure, but she was an opponent all the same.

Just when I had made up my mind about her, our eyes disconnected. Her gaze flitted over to Dylan, and I watched her jaw fall slack. She stared in shock for a moment before whispering, "Luke?"

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><p><em><strong>AN: I realize this was another short chapter, so I'm sorry about that. However, it was much better than the other chapter (that is, in my opinion), so I feel a lot less ashamed than I did last time. Yay for more confidence! :D next chapter will have Annabeth and Dylan's reactions to each other. So yeah. Kay. Bye.**_

_**Review? 3**_


	11. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note: Not gonna lie, guys, I'm getting kind of sick of this story. Don't get me wrong, I'll finish it, but I might cut it off a little earlier than expected. I'm definitely acting out your idea, WhiteWinterStar, but I'll probably start that next chapter and then go on for maybe three more. If anybody thinks they might want to continue this on their own after I have Fang and Angel's Detective's OC come in, I'd be fine with handing the story over. So yeah. If nobody wants to, though, I'll find some way to wrap it up. On that melancholy note, on to the review response!**_

—_**WhiteWinterStar: If you decided to publish your story, I'd sure as hell be a constant supporter! :D**_

_**Read and review?(:**_

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><p><em>Percy's POV.<em>

Annabeth stared at him blankly for a moment, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to figure out what to say. I was actually surprised— being as she was a daughter of Athena, I had never expected to see her so out of sorts. I mean, sure, I'd expected her to freak out. I'd never expected that I'd ever in my _life _see her speechless, though. It took a good thirty seconds of staring before she regained enough of her mind to say softly, "_Luke?"_

How he heard her, I have no idea, but his head whipped to the side. "Annabeth?" he exclaimed not-so-softly. He managed to jump off the wall and run over to us without getting burned or smacked by a boulder, which I suppose may have been a good thing. He stopped running directly in front of Annabeth and said, "Hey."

She stared at him blankly for a moment before stated blatantly, "What the fuck?"

_Same old Annabeth, _I thought fondly. Dylan bit his lip and stared at her for a moment before saying, "Listen, I know this might be confusing, but—"

"What the _fuck _are you doing here?" she screeched. She then lowered her voice as her logical and rational side took over and added, "Did you not really die? Are you some freaky _twin_? I honestly can't understand this. I _watched you die!_"

Dylan nodded and said, "I can explain, Annabeth."

"You'd better," she seethed. She then remembered that I was here and demanded, "Did you know about this?" She then recalled seeing him walk in with us and smacked my arm. "Why the hell didn't tell me he was _Luke, _Seaweed Brain!"

"I didn't want you killing him before Chiron saw him," I responded with a smirk. She smacked me again and grumbled, "You're lucky I don't put my dagger through you _right now._"

I watched Max tense up at that phrase— she'd obviously received too many death threats to know whether or not they were over-exaggerations. I rolled my eyes and grinned solely for Max's benefit, and out of the corner of my eyes I saw her relax a little. Annabeth noticed and looked as though she wanted to put her dagger through _Max, _so I redirected her anger towards me again. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Dyl— er, _Luke_."

"You should be, Seaweed Brain!" she snapped, but it wasn't backed up with as much anger as before. She turned her attention back to her ex-best friend and commanded him, "Start talking, traitor."

He frowned at the name he'd called her but ignored it and began to tell his story. "Okay, so you know how I turned evil and let Kronos take over my body. And how— I don't remember this part, but Percy says I killed myself to defeat Kronos and save the gods. But after that, I guess some scientist, Dr. Hans, found my body and decided, _'Hey, look! A dead kid! Let's clone him— and hell, let's add in a pair of wings and super vision!'_ After that, I met Angel and Max at his place… I ran off and joined up with the flock, which caused some… uh, tension. A few weeks ago we met Percy, and… here I am." He smiled sheepishly at her, hoping that he didn't sound as lame as he thought he did.

I watched Annabeth, waiting for her reaction. She hesitated for a moment, looking like she was ready to call him out for bullshitting her. She registered the genuine expression on his face, dripping with sincerity. Being as she was a daughter or Athena, she was pretty good at seeing through lies and telling whether or not people were being legitimate. She bit her lip and said, "Oh…"

"I don't remember much about my past," Dylan said slowly, trying to phrase what he was trying to say correctly. "I know my name was Luke, and that I was a son of Hermes. I had a sword… Backbiter, I think? And I remember Kronos." His face hardened but then softened as he added quietly, "I remember _you, _Annabeth."

"How you totally betrayed me at every chance you got?" she snapped sarcastically. "Yeah, I remember that, too."

"No. I'm talking about when we were kids. Remember how we used to be best friends? We told each other everything. And we totally kicked _ass _whenever monsters came around."

"Until you tried to kill Percy and went to work with Kronos," she shot back. Throughout the whole ordeal, she'd had hope for Luke— but I suppose his treachery hurt her more than she'd led us to believe.

"I sacrificed myself," Dylan reminded her gently. "I died to save Percy, the camp, the gods… I died to save _you._"

"Oh, my gods," she groaned. "Could you _get _any cheesier? I guess that's the Dylan in you. _Luke, my Luke, was never like that._ And _you, _sir, are not my Luke. You look like him, and I could pretend you were him all I'd like. But it's just like it was before, when Kronos was in your head: you have two people trapped up there. I refuse to take part until you guys decide who's in charge."

"Annabeth," Dylan said pleadingly. "Come on. Please?"

"No," she responded curtly. She spun on her heel and walked away, and I had a feeling that she was— as per usual— far more upset than she chose to show.

I looked back at the flock and said, "Guys, I'll be right back…" before chasing after Annabeth. I caught up to her and draped my arm over her should comfortingly. "Hey… you alright?"

"I'm fine," she responded curtly. She looked up at my disbelieving expression and admitted sheepishly, "Alright, I suppose I'm a little pissed."

"A little?" I asked skeptically, a small smile beginning to creep its way onto my face. "You _totally _shut him down!"

"Asshole deserved it," she responded. My grin became contagious, and I watched it make its way onto her face. She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed, looking out at the camp wearily. "You're a good friend, Percy."

I smirked and retorted with a casual, "I know." She rolled her eyes and punched my arm, letting out a small laugh before falling silent and just sitting with me.

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><p><em><strong>AN: I have a feeling I went OOC with Annabeth, but I really don't care because… I finished another chapter! :D Another mad short, not-very-good chapter, but still, a chapter nonetheless! I'm too lazy to proofread this (as I said, I'm really not into this story anymore. Like, at all), soo take it as it is and I'm sorry If it doesn't flow well. :D**_

_**Also, Jamie, sorry. I don't like your present anymore. :P**_

_**Review if you want. Blurghh.**_


	12. Author's Note

**Hello.**

**It is Christine, Christineexx, the oh-so-wonderful author of this story.**

**Yeah. Hi.**

**So I realize I was being rash when I said I was going to be giving up on this story.**

**Sorry about that. I was in a mad horrible mood. :P**

**WhiteWinterStar.**

**Hi.**

**Your comment made me realize how stupid I was being.**

**So thanks. :D**

**For those who didn't read that review…**

**Instead of cancelling this story, I'm taking a break.**

**(Before WhiteWinterStar's review, the idea had never occurred to me.)**

**So you can thank WhiteWinterStar for that.**

**When I return, my chapters will be better.**

**Probably longer, as well.**

**Why? Because I won't be sick of writing this after a nice break.**

**I promise I'll come back, I just don't know when.**

**So, I will see you when I return.**

**Thank you so much for bearing with me. You guys are great.**

**Love,**

**Christineexx(:**


	13. Chapter 11

_**Author's Note: Well, hey there, guys! Miss me? (: Um, so, I know that this has been a long hiatus and you probably all doubted that I was coming back. I did, too. But I got a message from somebody on here complaining about my absence, which made me remember you guys. Sure enough, when I read through the story I was struck with ideas! So, here I am. (:**_

_**Review Response Time!**_

_**-**_**shotmeoutofthesky98: _I'm so glad! you have no idea how much that means to me :D_**

–**WhiteWinterStar:**_** You should feel special! :D I'm not sure how often this is going to be updated after this chapter, but I finally got a little of my spark back haha (:**_

–**MusicManiacGirl: **_**OHMYGOSH, do you really think I was in character for them?! I was so scared! Thank you so much :D**_

–**.Twix27: **_**LOOOOL. It's okay. I would've been totally pissed if I were you, too. You're probably still pissed since my break was so long… yikes!**_

–**Kate childof Athena: **_**Ohmygosh, thank you so much! You have no idea how much that all means to me. (: I promise I'll see this one through, no matter how long it takes!**_

–**Maximumridefan111: **_**Ahhh, thank you! :D I was getting so frustrated with everybody making the flock into demigods that I couldn't handle it. I had to write a fic! :D It's taking a lot longer than I thought, but I'm getting there haha. Thank you so much for the review and I'm so glad you like this!**_

–**MissTechnicality: **_**It is now (: I don't know how frequently I'll be updating, but I'm almost positive it won't be another, like, six months before I update. (:**_

—**Annemarie787:** _**They were mean to Luke because even though he did technically save Olympus in the end, he was responsible for a lot of their friends' deaths and they're kind of hesitant to overlook that. Luke didn't actually get through the rebirth process, because Dr. Hans (was that his name? Awks.) found Luke's body and made Dylan with it. By some fluke, he kept Luke's memories. I know I didn't make it clear what happened there, and I didn't here either, but it's going to come into play later. I promise. (:**_

_**Also, thank **_**MonkeyMan6288 **_**for reminding me that this story was still here!**_

_**Now, on to the show! :D**_

_Max's POV._

I sat on the ground with Dylan, playing with the strands of grass under my legs. The rest of the flock was taking turns on the rock-climbing wall. Every few seconds I would look over at them and make sure they weren't, oh, I don't know, being crushed or burned to death, but for the most part I was paying attention to Dylan. He was sitting with his head down, staring mournfully at his feet. Normally I wasn't the biggest on cheering him up, but being as I was the fearless leader (and nobody else was willing), the task had fallen on my shoulders. As per usual. After a few moments, I'd had enough of watching his wounded-puppy face and asked, "You alright?"

His big blue eyes met my brown ones, causing me to get caught between wanting to gag at his unmasked emotion and wanting to comfort him. Battle Max versus Mommy Max. "Yeah," he murmured before turning to watch what I'm sure was an extremely interesting episode of Bug Climbing Grass.

"Bullshit," I pronounced, signifying that Battle Max had won out over my inner maternal instincts. He glanced up at me in shock, to which I allowed a scowl to overcome my face. "You can't just sit there with that dopey sad look on your face and say you're fine. You can either tell me what's wrong, or you can go climb the wall with the flock- but I'm not going to sit here and wait for you to quit moping."

His eyes burned for a brief moment, and I thought I'd been successful in awakening his rage when he had the nerve to— get this— _apologize. _His "sorry" was in a quiet whisper that sent a chill down my spine and forced me to do the most comforting thing I could think of, which happened to be punching his arm as hard as I could. "Ow!"

"Snap the hell out of it!" I ordered. "We're supposed to be having fun. We're _safe. _So quit moping around just because some chick—"

"She's not just some chick!" he snapped, cutting off my sentence and surprising me enough to make me fall silent. "She's my best friend."

I forced a frown to appear on my face, as though what he'd just said genuinely upset me. I escalated my frown to a slight pout as I asked a sarcastic, "I thought you were _my _perfect other half." The fake sadness became too unsettling for me, so I corrected it to a thoughtful expression before asking, "Can I call Dr. God to get a refund, or..?"

He leapt to his feet and glared down at me, clearly ready for a fight. Though I _had _been trying to piss him off in order to get him to quit being such a sad-sack, somewhere along the line he'd managed to get me aggravated as well. I stood and took a step towards him, fully ready to start a fight. I saw him tense up and open his mouth to say something when a voice distracted me.

"Is everything alright over here?"

My head whipped around to face the speaker— _Percy. _Of course. "Just peachy," I snapped, but before I could go any further the sight of Dylan walking away caught my eye. I whipped my head around to watch him depart before shoving past Percy and grumbling, "Good going, idiot."

"What?" He took a moment to recover before grabbing my wrist in an effort to stop me. When my fire-filled eyes landed on his confused face he asked a blatant, "What's going on?"

My scowl momentarily softened before my previous anger came bubbling back up to the surface. I ripped my arm out of his grasp and demanded, "I don't know. Why don't you go ask Annabeth?"

He froze, a confused expression stuck on his face like glue. _Stuck on his face like glue— _I wonder where I had gotten that expression from? The last time I remembered using it was when— _No. _I shut down my brain completely, slamming that line of thought to a bitter halt. Despite my whirlwind of memories, I was still present enough in the... well, present, to hear Percy inquire, "Are you mad at me for going after her?"

I forced myself to bring my mind back to the here and now. I stared at Percy blankly until his words had fully registered in my head, at which point I answered, "No." It was an honest answer; I didn't even stop to think about getting upset over that. "Why would I have?"

His eyebrows knitted together as he worked something out in his head, more than likely whether or not to address my question. Finally, he cleared his mind and shifted his gaze over to where the flock were on the climbing wall. "They're doing great," he commented.

I studied the way Iggy was shooting upwards, avoiding incoming threats like he'd been doing it all his life. Probably because he had, but that's just my opinion. "You say that like you weren't expecting it," I retorted easily.

"Well, I mean…" Percy trailed off, watching Iggy narrowly escape a stream of lava coming down at him. Once the Igster had reached the top of the climbing wall, Percy admitted, "I guess the whole 'handicapped' thing doesn't really apply to him."

"No," I agreed, a small grin beginning to spread across my lips as I recalled our one-time home back in Colorado. "Unless you move the furniture without telling him."

I watching Iggy climb down the wall and land next to the Gasman, exchanging high-fives and grins. I was in the middle of watching Gazzy saddle up to give it a go when I got the feeling that he wasn't the only avian-human hybrid being stared at. My eyes slid over to Percy and found his blue eyes set on my face. My lips twisted into a scowl for the millionth time since I woke up and I demanded, "What?"

The corners of his lips twitched upwards, forcing the scowl to root itself even deeper in my face. He let out a laugh and held up his hands in surrender, stirring up even more annoyance on my part. "Nothing," he swore, sobering up just long enough to draw an 'x' over his heart with his fingers.

I was about to press him for further details, more than likely by pressing my fist to his face, when I heard a gasp from Angel. My head swiveled to face her, and I was at her side in seconds. Kicking Percy's ass was going to have to wait. "What?" I asked in a tone much harsher than I'd intended. In response, she pointed up to the sky due west, where I saw several large, dark birds flying. They went on a downslope and were out of slight, presumably having landed.

I was about to tell Angel that she must have been mistaken when a sound cut me off. It was loud and menacing, and from the lack of subsequent toxic fumes I knew it wasn't coming from Gazzy. My eyes met with Angel's, and we immediately started running.

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><p><strong><em>AN: Sooo? What'd you think? c: I know this wasn't longer or better than my older chapters like i promised, but I'm so sorry! Plus this took so long... ugh. sowwy guys ;c BUT, I'll probably be updating more often! I hope! Teehee. c:_**


	14. Chapter 12

_**Author's Note: Goddamn, I have to get better about updating! I am so, so sorry about this… :c But, thank my English teacher for the update! He's having us write an essay relating The Odyssey to the Percy Jackson movie. I was so infuriated with the screen adaptation that I had to take a break from my essay and finish up this chapter~**_

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><p><em><strong>Review Response Time!<strong>_

—_**Tara: I completely agree! I think they'd be so cute… If only they actually met up :c Thank you though! They're both such perfect characters; I hate the idea of doing either of them wrong. I'm sorry this took so long!**_

—_**Toe walker: Thank you so much for understanding and for sticking with me through my break! I'm so glad you're still a fan c:**_

—_**BlueJayAuthor: :D**_

—_**The Avian-Olympian: Thank you… so do I! But hmm… I guess you'll just have to wait and see c:**_

—_**Lumina Balderson: I did and you're right; that would be a good fit! Except I'm kind of trying to stay away from making the flock into demigods… I feel like a vast majority of these crossovers include one or more of the flock members finding out that they are demigods, and I'm really trying to stay away from that.**_

—_**MaxandThalia: I'm glad you approve! :D**_

—_**PrettyInPink85: Your review is what motivated me to finally start up this chapter… so thank you! I would've totally forgotten without you. Here's to you! :D**_

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><p>Percy's POV<p>

I heard the roar of Peleus, our fleece-protecting dragon, just in time to catch sight of Angel and Max running towards the noise out of the corner of my eye. I hesitated before taking out Riptide and chasing after them; he only ever made noises that aggressive if there was an intruder at the gate, or if Clarisse happened to wander by. I couldn't quite decide which one would be safer for Max to be running off to.

"Hey, wait up!" I heard the charging of feet behind me, signifying that the rest of the flock was chasing after me. I made it all the way to the camp's entrance before a rogue wing whapped my head and knocked me over. Iggy landed beside me not a second later, a sarcastic "Oops" his only remark.

I got to my feet and looked down to the bottom of the hill, where Max was standing. She was staring blankly at a tall, dark guy that was probably about our age; behind him stood a girl who was dressed in similar black attire. The Gasman had his gaze on him as well, saying a soft, "Is that—"

I heard a loud groan coming from behind me— Dylan. I could practically hear the scowl on his face as he muttered, "Friggin' great."

"What the hell is going on?" Iggy demanded. I was secretly glad that he'd asked; I had no idea who these people were, and didn't want to seem like an idiot for asking. I had a feeling that even if I had, my question would get brushed aside as they went to greet the stranger.

"Wait a sec," Gazzy whispered, causing Iggy to roll his eyes and grit his teeth. I wished I knew who it was, just so that I could tell him; Iggy had no choice but to wait, and I couldn't even imagine how infuriating that must be. I felt a momentary pang of remorse for having blinded Polyphemus way back when, but shrugged it off when I recalled the small detail that I'd done so while he'd been trying to kill me and my best friends.

My attention was drawn back to the scene below when I heard the sound of skin hitting skin. When I looked over, Max's hands were clenched at her sides, and the guy was rubbing his jaw. The girl behind him made a move as if to attack Max, but the guy put out his arm to hold her back. That was about the point when I made my way down the hill.

"Hey," I cut in, placing a hand on Max's shoulder, "What's going on here? Is everything alright?"

"Go fuck yourself," Max snapped at the guy, then shrugged away my hand. Her eyes bore holes in my skin as she added, "You too, Percy." I watched her snap out her wings and take one, two, three steps forward, jumping into the air on the fourth and soaring away.

When Max was out of eyeshot and my gaze fell from the sky, the tall guy and I locked eyes, evaluating each other. I felt like I should know who he was— probably because everybody _else _knew who he was. Finally, he broke his silence by grumbling, "Max throws a hell of a punch."

"I wouldn't know," was my easy reply. For whatever reason, that caused his appraising look to turn into a full-fledged glare. It took Nudge running over and wrapping her arms around him for him to tear his gaze away from mine.

"Ohmygosh I knew you would come back but Max said you wouldn't and then we weren't allowed to talk about you but I knew you wouldn't just leave us and I was right and— Fang, how did you find us?" Nudge's motor mouth took a lot of effort to keep up with, but I understood the general idea of what she was saying. The thing that stood out most was that this was him— _Fang. _The one whose blog I used to obsess over, and the one I'd recently grown to resent for leaving and consequently hurting the flock. I almost said something, but Nudge quickly interrupted with a question that was close enough to what I'd been going to say. "Who's that?"

"Riot," Fang said simply, smirking when Nudge immediately detached herself from his torso and went over to inspect the girl. With her long black hair and dark attire, she looked like she could be Fang's sister. The main difference between the two was their eyes. Hers were a bright blue, and the right one had a jagged scar running over it, whereas his were dark and unmarked.

"I like your hair," was Nudge's simple evaluation of the girl, lifting up the single silver streak amidst the black.

"Thanks," she said uncertainly, as though she wasn't quite sure of how to interact. She glanced up at Fang, who was silently urging her to say something back. Finally, she looked back to Nudge and said a slow, "I like your… uh…"

Nudge, however, had already moved on to her next thought. "Fang I can't wait to show you around the camp, I don't even care how you found us this is so exciting, you're going to love it here it's so much fun especially the rock climbing wall and—"

"I can't get in." Fang's simple statement cut through all of Nudge's enthusiasm, causing her to fall silent immediately. "There's some kind of invisible shield or some shit. We saw the camp from above. That's why we stopped. I didn't know Ma— I didn't know _you _were here." His eyes slid over to me before he commented, "Nice dragon, by the way. Where'd you get that one from? Jeb? The Director? Dr. God?"

"They're not from the School, Fang," Dylan cut in. Apparently, he'd walked up behind me and decided to join the conversation— which was totally fine, because Fang had just completely lost me.

"Really?" Fang snapped. His glare bounced around each individual flock member before settling on Dylan's. "Because the force field and the giant fire-breathing reptile say otherwise."

When it became evident that he was waiting for a rebuttal, or just some kind of explanation, I froze. _Well, you see, I'm half-god, and the shield is magical, and that dragon? Well, he's just there to protect our magical golden fleece._ I highly doubted that he would take me seriously."I'm sure Chiron could explain it better than I could."

"And who's Chiron?" he snapped. "A new doctor?"

"No," I answered evenly. I was completely determined not to lose my temper with him, no matter how hard he pushed me. "A centaur."

Fang let out a dry chuckle, the closest thing to an emotion I'd seen from him besides anger. When he said nothing further, Nudge cut in, grabbing his arm in order to tether him here. "Fang, really, I swear. We're not traitors, okay? Come in, please. Even if you just wait inside till Max comes back."

Fang turned back to Riot, silently asking her opinion. The fact that he was asking her for her opinion despite the fact that he was so clearly the leader of the two made my distaste for him slightly alleviate, but I said nothing. Finally, after a long pause, Riot said, "You got any food?"

Nudge grinned and grabbed her arm in her free hand before looking at me expectantly. She was bouncing in place, and I could tell that if I didn't let them in soon she would explode. "I, Percy Jackson, grant Fang and Riot access to Camp Half-Blood."

Nudge let out a squeal and began to sprint up the hill, dragging the two newcomers behind her as she did so. "Perceus thank you so so so so so so so so—"

She wasn't even done by the time that she was out of earshot.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So, sorry about this short and overall shitty chapter. The next one might be better. Maybe. Possibly. We'll see~**_


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